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Final Fantasy VIII statuses
The following is a list of status effects in Final Fantasy VIII. Status effects are applied by being hit by status spells and other abilities that inflict status effects. Enemies have various innate immunities, but player characters must use the junction system to be protected against negative statuses. The ST-ATK-J ability lets players add negative status effects to normal attacks. This can be detrimental if an ally winds up confused and attacks the party. Some positive status effects can be permanently applied to player characters via passive abilities learned by Guardian Forces. The number of status ailments on player characters is a determining factor in calculating their Crisis Level, which affects the potency of certain Limit Breaks. Certain Limit Breaks can be used to inflict negative statuses to enemies, while others apply beneficial statuses to the party. List of statuses Death / Sudden Death Visual Each player character has a brief and unique death animation. When allies are KO, they lay on the ground until revived and their ATB bar is emptied. Enemies fade out and are removed from the battlefield after their death animation is finished. Enemies struck by Sudden Death will skip their normal death animation and simply fade out red after being struck. Effect Sudden death is when a character is instantly killed, whereas normal Death occurs when HP reaches 0. When all enemies are dead, it is considered a Battle Victory. When the entire party is dead, it is a Game Over. There are no scripted battles which call for the death to the heroes. Phoenix Downs and Life magic revive fallen allies, but may cause instant death to undead, including targets that have the Zombie status. On the flip side, using Death spells or attacks against the undead may fully replenish their HP. Guardian Forces die if they run out of HP. Dead party members don't gain EXP from battles, but the GFs junctioned to them will. Dead party members' level still affects the enemies' level calculation if they are in the active party. Duration Remains until cured. ST-ATK-J ST-DEF-J Means of revival Means of infliction Poison Visual Afflicted unit has green bubbles above their head. Effect When an afflicted combatant takes an action, they take damage equal to 5 to 7% of their maximum HP. The damage is non-elemental, thus even if the player junctions the afflicted to absorb Poison damage, they still take damage. Duration Poison remains if not cured, even after battle. ST-ATK-J ST-DEF-J Means of removal Means of infliction Petrify Visual Target turns into gray stone and becomes immobilized. Damage and healing do not affect petrified units. Effect Petrification flags the afflicted unit as defeated, and is thus essentially similar to the Death status. If all player characters become petrified it is a Game Over. When an enemy is petrified in battle, the player earns EXP based on the HP damage done prior to petrification. Petrify can be a useful asset to low level sessions where one might still want to gain AP but not so much EXP. Duration The effect remains until cured, even after battle. ST-ATK-J ST-DEF-J Means of removal Means of infliction Darkness Visual The afflicted has a dark cloud over around head, shrouding their vision. Effect Darkness reduces a character's Hit Rate by 75%. Characters with base hit rate of 255% are unaffected, such as Squall and Seifer, although Darkness disables the gunblade's trigger making them unable to deal additional damage. Duration Remains until cured, even after battle. ST-ATK-J ST-DEF-J Means of removal Means of infliction Silence Visual The afflicted has a speech bubble with "..." above their head. Effect Silence disables the Magic, Draw and GF commands. Rinoa is immune to this status during her Angel Wing Limit Break. Duration Remains until cured, even after battle. ST-ATK-J ST-DEF-J Means of removal Means of infliction Berserk Visual The afflicted turns red with steam rising out of their head. Effect The Berserk status raises physical attack damage by 50%, but the afflicted does nothing but attack random foes until the state is removed. Rinoa's Angel Wing Limit Break is similar but with magic spells instead of attacks. She is immune to Berserk when in Angel Wing as well. Duration Remains until the end of battle unless cured. ST-ATK-J N/A ST-DEF-J Means of removal Means of infliction Zombie Visual The afflicted turns green. Effect The afflicted receives damage from curative items and magic, and is instantly killed by Life magic and items. Targets under this status gain innate immunity to Instant Death and Doom, take double damage from Holy-elemental attacks, and become resistant to physical attacks, halving the damage. Draining HP from a Zombie unit damages the drainer, unless both the caster and the target are undead/Zombie. Duration Remains until the end of battle unless cured. ST-ATK-J ST-DEF-J Means of removal Sleep Visual The afflicted unit leans over with Z's floating above their head. Effect Sleep temporarily prevents a character from acting, lasting for approximately 13 seconds. Regardless, the character's Evasion is not reduced, so it is possible they may avoid attacks while sleeping. While induced with Sleep the Protect, Shell and Regen statuses do not expire. Whereas Protect and Shell still provide physical and magical defense, respectively, Regen and Poison remain dormant until the character is reawaken. Some bosses and enemies, especially in the earlier portions of the game, are vulnerable to Sleep. By using this status effect with ST-ATK-J, players may exploit this weakness by utilizing magic spells on the inflicted, taking little to no damage throughout the whole battle. ST-ATK-J ST-DEF-J Means of removal Means of infliction Slow Visual The afflicted character moves slower. ATB bars are blue. Effect Halves the Speed of the afflicted character. Duration Does not expire unless cured. ST-ATK-J ST-DEF-J Means of removal Means of infliction Stop Visual The afflicted character is stopped in place. ATB bar is grayed out and does not move. Effect Stop lasts for around 13.3 seconds, and targets under Stop are unable to avoid attacks. If the target was afflicted with any status effects prior to being stopped, the status effects are halted as well; spells like Poison and Regen won't damage or heal, and effects like Protect won't wear off. Duration Expires after 13.3 seconds or when cured. ST-ATK-J ST-DEF-J Means of removal Means of infliction Doom Visual The afflicted character has red numbers above their head. Effect Instant Death applied as counter expires. Duration ST-ATK-J ST-DEF-J Means of removal Means of infliction Slow Petrify Visual Effect Duration ST-ATK-J ST-DEF-J Means of removal Means of infliction Confuse Visual The afflicted spins around uncontrollably. Effect The afflicted performs random actions against random targets. This makes the status especially hazardous to player characters, who may waste their good items if they have the Item stock equipped. Confused player characters don't summon, however. Duration ST-ATK-J The player can attack the Confuse effect to their weapon by junctioning Confuse spells to ST-ATK-J. ST-DEF-J The player can become immune to Confuse by junctioning 100 Confuse spells to ST-DEF-J. Means of removal Hit by a physical attack, Esuna, Remedy or Treatment. Means of infliction The Confuse spell, Malboro's Bad Breath or Doomtrain. Drain Visual Effect Duration ST-ATK-J ST-DEF-J Means of removal Means of infliction Blow Away Visual The combatant is knocked, blown off, sliced in half of or otherwise removed from the battle field. Effect Removes the affected character from battle. Teaching Quistis the Degenerator blue magic and sending her into combat will allow plenty of quick kills, EXP and AP. This is often used as a method to grind in areas such as the Islands Closest to Heaven and Hell, where all foes are level 100 regardless of party's average level. There is no curative items or spells, nor is there any ST-ATK or ST-DEF junctions related to this effect. Means of infliction Curse Visual The character is slightly darker, similar to the Darkness effect but without the smoke. The dark hue alternates as if in the manner of glowing. Effect A cursed character is unable to use their limit break. However, if the limit break command was selected before the hero was inflicted, they will still use it. The player's party has no means of inflicting curse, since most enemies don't use Limit Breaks. Duration Remains until cured, removed after battle. ST-DEF-J Means of removal Means of infliction Vit 0 Visual The target is discolored in a violet hue, as if to signify they are suffering from deteriorating effects or are maligned to a vulnerable state. Effect Units afflicted by Vit 0 have their Vitality and Spirit stat set to 0, placing them at an extremely dangerous vulnerable position where attacks have full effect without the factor of defense. Unlike most other status ailments, Vit 0 does not appear in status junctions and thus cannot be neither protected against or attacked to physical attacks. Duration Remains until the end of battle unless cured. Gravity The End Visual The effect places the target in a cinematic movie-esque montage that evokes a happily ever after type ending; upon the end of the sequence, the target is instantly defeated akin to the manner of Blow Away and Death, either never seen again in regards of monsters, or are subdued or subject to their destruction in regards to bosses. Effect With the exception of Undead monsters, any opponent, including bosses, are instantly defeated; resistance to instant death is bypassed and ignored. Enemies cannot afflict this effect, being player only accessible. Aura Visual The afflicted unit glows a yellow gold hue. Effect The Crisis Level of an afflicted unit greatly escalates, allowing either the player to easily access Limit Breaks, or for opponents and monsters to access higher level attacks akin to that manner. Protect Effect When the target is struck by a Physical attack, a steep concave blue light shield manifests. Effect Targets under this effect have any Physical type damage afflicted to them reduced by half. Shell Visual When the target is struck by a Magical attack, a wide spherical magenta light barrier manifests. Effect Any Magic based damage afflicted to the target is reduced by half. Haste Visual Player characters' ATB gauge turns red when affected. Effect Haste is a status that increases the unit's speed gained through the spell of the same name, from the Mad Rush command ability, from the Auto-Haste support ability, and from Quistis's Limit Break Mighty Guard when the Crisis Level is anything above level 1. It lasts for 32 seconds, but also makes other buffs wear off faster. Reflect Visual There is no visual change other than that a yellow shield appears to bounce the spell when the Reflected unit is targeted by magic. Effect Reflect is achieved through the spell of the same name, summoning Carbuncle, and the support ability Auto-Reflect. It lasts for 32 seconds. It bounces single-target magic spells back to the caster. Float Visual The Floated unit hovers in place slightly aboveground. Effect Float grants higher Evasion and protection against ground-based attacks and magic. When Minotaur and Sacred are afflicted with Float their HP-regaining abilities are lost. Float lasts for around 11.73 seconds, and makes the target weak against Wind-elemental attacks. Regen Visual A Regened unit has no visual change other than that green health-regeneration numbers pop over their head periodically. Effect Regen is bestowed through the spell of the same name or through Quistis's Mighty Guard. Regen will restore 5% Max HP every 80 x BattleSpeed ticks (a tick is a 1/60th of a second), resulting in the status restoring 80% max HP (16 times per cast). The status lasts for around 21.3 seconds. Double Visual Being under Double status has no visual change to the character model. Effect Double is a status gained from the magic spell of same name, and from summoning Cerberus. A Doubled unit can cast three spells per turn and the status it does not expire until the end of battle. The Expend support ability lets the player cast two spells at the cost of only one from the stock. Triple Visual Being under Triple status has no visual change to the character model. Effect Triple is a status gained from the magic spell of same name, and from summoning Cerberus. A Doubled unit can cast three spells per turn and does not expire until the end of battle. The Expend support ability lets the player cast three spells at the cost of only one from the stock. Defend Visual Each playable character raises their weapon in front of their body when they are defending (same pose as when they use Draw). Effect The Defend status is applied by the Defend command learned by Brothers and Cactuar. It makes the user immune to physical attacks and halves magical damage. If the user is attacked by a physical attack that would inflict a status effect, the status will never be applied. Defend lasts until the character picks their next move. Angel Wing Visual There is no visual change while in the status, as the angel wings are only part of the initial animation. Effect Angel Wing is a special status effect exclusive to Rinoa, obtained from her second Limit Break command as part of the story. Activating Angel Wing will have Rinoa enter a "Magic-Berserk" status; players lose control of her until the battle's end, or until she is defeated or petrified. If Rinoa is petrified/defeated, the Angel Wing status will be gone when she is revived/cured. During Angel Wing Rinoa is immune to Berserk, Confuse, and Silence. Since Angel Wing works by granting a status effect, it will not work when Rinoa is Invincible (e.g. from Invincible Moon). When buffed by Angel Wing Rinoa rapidly and relentlessly casts random offensive magic from her stock without expending the spells. Each casting is five times stronger than normal. A way to optimize for Angel Wing is to have Meteor as her only offensive spell, and use curative etc. spells for most junctions. Invincible Visual Affected units appear translucent. Effect Invincible makes the affected unit immune to all physical and magical attacks, as well as status change, though curative spells and items still work, and targets under the status still lose HP from Poison and from using the Darkside command. Invincibility is gained from Hero and Holy War and Rinoa's Limit Break Invincible Moon. The status lasts for 24 seconds. Gallery FFVIII KO.png|Sudden Death. FFVIII Poison Status.png|Poison. FFVIII Petrify Status.png|Petrify. FFVIII Blind Status.png|Darkness. FFVIII Silence Status.png|Silence. FFVIII Berserk Status.png|Berserk. FFVIII Zombie Status.png|Zombie. FFVIII Sleep Status.png|Sleep. FFVIII Slow Status.png|Slow. FFVIII Doom Status.png|Doom. FFVIII Gradual Petrify.png|Slow Petrify. FFVIII Confusion.png|Confuse. FFVIII Curse Status.png|Curse FFVIII Vit 0 Status.png|Vit 0. Aura Status.png|Aura. FFVIII Shell Status.png|Shell. FFVIII Haste Status.png|Haste. FFVIII Float Status.png|Float. Category:Status effects in Final Fantasy VIII Category:Status effect lists